As you would have seen in my post yesterday, I’m all about adding extra value stuff to the site. With that in mind I’ve created a new page of desktop wallpapers that you can download. There are wallpapers sized to fit a standard (1920 x1080) monitor as well as for iPhone home screens. I’ll be adding new stuff all the time so be sure to keep checking back. If you’ve seen an image on here before that you’d like to see as a desktop wallpaper – let me know in the comments (or via email, tweet, Facebook or G+) and we’ll see what we can do! In the meantime head over to the Wallpaper Page and take a look!

Sometimes the world changes overnight. You fall asleep in one universe and wake up in another. Styles change, fashion evolves, business changes, the way things work and how they are done goes from one thing to the next. The creative industry is no stranger to this sort of evolution – in fact it’s often the catalyst for cultural shift.

I’m almost 35 years old and I’ve been a photographer, writer and filmmaker since I was 21. It’s the only real job I’ve ever had. When I was fresh off of travelling around the world I entered art school to become a photographer. The photography world I was a part of then couldn’t be more different from what the world of photography is now. It’s easy to say that the biggest change is technology and in a sense that’s right, but in a more vital way, technology has only been the stepping stone of change. When I started out we shot film and the internet was only for sending silly emails via our Hotmail accounts. The bandwidth didn’t exist to send attachments of word documents, let alone photographs – self publishing in the physical world meant zines that were the lowest of low-fi and digital publishing was a pipe dream. In those early days getting work published in a magazine, getting your photographs or words physically printed onto paper was the only means for anyone to see what you could do.

As technology improved, with high-speed internet and digital photography surpassing and killing film the whole idea of being a photographer or a writer or a filmmaker changed. Where it was once a rarity to have anyone see your work, it was now exponentially easier than ever to get your stuff out there. Blogs sprouted from nowhere and image sites like Flickr, 500px, Instagram and so on became a part of our daily lives. Digital cameras shoot HD video and the ease to share your creative work with the world is light-years away from when I was a fresh faced 21-year-old in Calgary, Canada.

I love technology; I love that I can get inspired by thousands of talented artists from all around the world. I love that I can share my work with a wide audience and use the internet to facilitate me living about as far from the beating heart of the publishing world as you can and still be a part of it. Photography has never been more popular, the amount of high quality filmmaking I see every day is staggering and the volume of well placed words I see ‘published’ ever day is really inspiring. The world of creative expression has gone through a revolution in the last decade – everything has changed and nothing looks like it did when I was cutting my teeth in 1998. Well, almost everything has changed.

In 1998 the way a creative person made their living was to sell their work to a publisher – whether they were gong to use it editorially in a magazine, for advertising, to be printed in a book or shown on television. In many ways this is still exactly the same – the only difference is now we have the internet. Where once the creative landscape was sparse with only a few serious professionals making a living much like a tradesman would, now that same landscape is overflowing with armature part-timers. Not for a second am I discounting their talent, on the contrary, it’s their talent that both inspires and scares the shit out of me.

There are now thousands of creative people who are willing to give away what we as creative professionals once sold. Photographers and writers who are happy to see their work in print for the satisfaction of having their name attached to it, without any concern for getting paid. This is a side gig for them, a hobby that they do on the weekends before returning to whatever job they do Monday to Friday. The thing is, this isn’t my hobby, this is my job. When an editor realizes that he or she can get top quality work without having to pay for it, what is the incentive to ever pay anyone again? Thought the argument is still valid that the cream will rise to the top, the vat has become an ocean of milk and emerging from that sea of talent has gotten much harder over the years.

What hasn’t changed is the grim reality that rent is still due, it still takes gas in the tank to get places and we have to eat dinner every night. The gear that I use has grown more expensive and the fixed costs of being a professional creative person have gone up every year. What hasn’t changed in the wages from publishing – rates for words and images haven’t gone up in half a decade and now there is a cultural expectation to give much of my work away. Websites, Facebook pages, Google Plus, blogs, YouTube and so on – this exciting new world of creative sharing means that much of the work that I would have traditionally sold, I now give away. I’m not complaining, I’m just as excited as anyone when people connect with the art that I create and the fact that I have the opportunity to connect with more people around the world than ever before is truly awesome.

What I’ve struggled with for a long time is to find a way, like nearly everyone in my same position, to navigate through this new uncharted land, while still maintaining the job I love. If I give everything away, I’ve got nothing left to sell. If I give nothing away – I’ll be forgotten amongst the tidal wave of art that’s out there. If I give my second rate stuff away, It looks like I’m second rate. For a long time I sat and thought about what to do and after much contemplation, I’ve decided what I want to do next.

I’m not going to post less, shy away from seeing my images go online or run away from creative sharing – I’m going to go the opposite way. You are about to start seeing more of my stuff online – much more of it. Resolutions will be higher, the words I post will be my A-Game and the videos I create will be shot in HD and you’ll be able to download them. I’m going to have desktop backgrounds you can download, iPhone home screen images, and full resolution pictures you can print out and put on your wall if you like. The hesitation to post my work on this site is being eliminated and the volume of my stuff, the work that I am most proud of, is about to go up. Adventureskope is going to evolve into a publication that showcases the very best of what I can do.

So what’s the catch? There is no catch, but I do need your help. On the right side of this page is a link called ‘Contribute’ this will take you to a secure PayPal page where you can donate some money to the cause. You can contribute as mush or as little as you’d like. I’m asking people to pay for what they think my work is worth to them. If you download an image to be your screen saver or to make a birthday card for your friend or a cool background image for your iPhone that should be worth something. You wouldn’t expect to be able to take a magazine home from the shop for free, so what’s wrong with paying a bit of money to help me keep producing art that you (hopefully) enjoy. I’m not going to put prices on anything or ask for minimum amounts – this is about an exchange that you think is fair and just.

There will never be restricted parts to my site, premium access or anything like that. I want to be able to display my best work for everyone to see, download and share. In order to continue to offer that I need your help to make it happen. I’m not asking for much, just a contribution so that I can justify sharing on the web the work that I am most proud of. At the end of the day its good karma and I will be truly grateful for your help.

The future of art is going to be an exciting and ever evolving place and I’m so excited to be a part of the biggest artistic revolution since the renaissance! Here’s to the future!

Best regards and thanks for visiting,

Scott

Cecil Peak in winter - The Ledge is 3/4 of the way up near the centre of the peak

Over New Years I went on a cool adventure with some good friends. Deciding to get out of the madness that is Queenstown during the holiday period, we escaped into the mountains to start 2012 off on a rather spectacular note. Across the lake from Queenstown is the rather large and imposing mountain called Cecil Peak. 3/4 of the way of the peak is an enormous ledge that juts out into the void. This ledge was our destination for NYE. We ended up there with 14 friends – some new, some practically family. Some hiked up, some flew in by chopper – as the sun set the bubbles were flowing and we cheered to the start of 2012. As the sun was setting on 2011 I took the opportunity to shoot some time lapse footage of our vantage point. This was all done with my GoPro HD Hero 2, shooting one frame a second for one hour. I mounted the camera to my egg timer panning time lapse rig (check my How to Make a panning time lapse rig article here) and hoped for the best. I was most pleased with the results – it really captured the feel of the night – complete with the song that we had on the stereo as the fireworks went off at midnight.

Regular visitors to Adventureskope will have seen my post last week about the music video I made for Katie Raven and her song Freedom. So what happened to it? Why isn’t it on YouTube anymore? Well, good news – Katie has been signed and now has a record deal! I’m super excited for her and can’t wait to see what happens next in her very promising musical career.  As Katie transitions into the next phase of her musical journey the record company has asked that all of her music and videos be removed from the internet so they can re-launch her career and image soon. If you were lucky enough to get in quick and see my video for ‘Freedom’ while it was live for a week of so, I hope you enjoyed it. If you didn’t get a chance to see it – it may return to the airwaves some day, or just drop by Adventureskope HQ and I’ll cue it up on the big screen for you! I’ll keep you posted on how Katie goes – and a hearty congratulations and good luck from me!

Recently I’ve been involved in a very cool project where I’ve been helping to test the newest offering from GoPro – the HD Hero 2. I’ve been testing for my good friend Gordon Laing and his awesome camera testing site – Camera Labs. You’ll remember a little while back when I tested the Canon 8-15mm Fisheye Zoom for Camera Labs. We had a great time testing the HD Hero 2 and the results were really interesting – if you’re in the market for a helmet cam or wondering how this latest greatest version measures up, definitely click here to read the full review on Camera Labs, see sample images and video. As part of the test and seeing as this is predominantly a video camera we put together a video (split into two parts) showing what the camera can do. I’ve posted them below so you can have a look at the fun we got up to, all in the name of testing!

GoPro HD Hero 2 review part 1 from Gordon Laing on Vimeo.

GoPro HD Hero 2 review part 2 from Gordon Laing on Vimeo.

You’ll notice in the credits a long list of thanks – this is one of those projects that just wouldn’t have happened without the collaboration of some great folks. So a big thanks again to everyone involved, you’re help and enthusiasm was most appreciated!

Fat Tyre Heli Biking

Nukeproof Mountain Bikes

Shotover Jet

AJ Hackett Bungy

Ziptrek Ecotours

Nzone Skydive

The Pygmies

And finally a big thanks to Gordon at Camera Labs, it was a great project and a fun collaboration. If you’re looking to buy a GoPro be sure to buy one via Camera Labs - it’s the same price to you and Gordon gets a commission out of it – win, win!

Do you ever get the feeling like the world is getting dumber? Perhaps it’s our perverse desire for fifteen minutes of fame that has spread through modern society like the clap at a summer camp. When back in the good old days (2009) being rich and famous and powerful was the ambition of most now it seems that the power and the cash are an afterthought of the fame. If only I could be on TV… or the Internet… then my life would be complete… fine – people have wanted their name in lights for as long as we’ve had lights, what’s changed is what they want the marquee to say. Where once fame for nobility, talent and achievement was the end goal now it seems that the end run through infamy-town is the quickest route. And what better way to be infamous that to be an idiot.

Taking a page from The Jersey Shore (the best train-wreck in TV history) there is an avalanche of mentally challenged fame-whores lining up to have their mug on the telly – preferably falling onto the concrete while drunk or maybe just saying something stupid.

While this trend has gone global, it seems that here in New Zealand folks have done the traditional Kiwi thing and boxed above our collective weight. The past few weeks have seen three entries into the hall of fame – three morons so thick that they defy adjectives juicy enough to fully encapsulate the flavour of their mental ineptitude. I give you the NZ Thick as a Post Hall of Fame – September Edition:

1) Jonathan Dixon. The Rugby World Cup is in full swing here in New Zealand and Queenstown, like everywhere else has been swept up in the excitement. While not featuring any matches in the tournament many of the players have been through town as their teams have used Queenstown as a training facility. We’ve had the Irish team, the Romanians’, the Georgians’ and the England team. Needless to say all of the teams let off some steam and enjoyed the Queenstown nightlife to some extent. The English got on the lash at a bar called Altitude and ran into some trouble. Attitude is, how shall I put this gently… a meet-market aimed at 18year old backpackers who are short on cash and morals. They offer $5 meals and cheap watered down booze at competitive prices. The music is a monosyllable drone of doof-doof interspersed with shots and dancing on a sticky floor. The night the English hit Altitude also happened to be midget wrestling night – yes, it’s that sort of bar. So the lads get on the terps and have a good old time. One of them has a bit of a slow dance with some random blonde gives her a hug and calls it a night. End of story you’d think. Well not quite. The guy happed to be their captain Mike Tindall, who also happens to be married to Zara Philips – the Queen’s Granddaughter. The English press got word that something had gone down and started sniffing around like a rat in the rubbish skip. Just when it was all about to blow over and be the non event it was enter Mr. Dixon. Jonathan Dixon was the bouncer on the door at Altitude that night and didn’t like what he saw. He decided in a moment of inspiration/desperation that he would sneak into the back room of Altitude and steal the surveillance tape of Tindell and Random Blonde canoodling and upload it to YouTube. But wait, it gets better. He didn’t just upload the vid – he added his own self righteous commentary on how Tindell disrespected The Queen and all sorts of bullshit. The video lasted for about an hour on YouTube but the damage was done. Soon enough the cops came knocking and Dixon was arrested for theft of the video, computer fraud (which is actually a big deal) and obviously fired from the bar. He appeared on court yesterday and filmed it himself – have a look at the video below to see just haw strange this guy is…

Since all this has gone down – things have gotten a bit crazy over here. On Saturday night I got a call from a British journalist trying to track down The Random Blonde. My phone rings and some guy is looking for some girl (who I don’t know), when I say I don’t know her he asks about another girl, who I don’t know I start asking the questions. I ask him how he got my number and why he’s calling me. As best I can interpret this is the chain of events to my phone ringing. The reporter gets a tip on who he thinks the Random Blonde is, finds her on Facebook. Gets nowhere there and starts looking at her Facebook friends – that would be the second name he mentioned. It appears that both of those girls ‘like’ The Source Magazine on Facebook. The reporter then starts investigating The Source and through maybe LinkedIn discovers that I’m the editor. He then tracks me down through my website and gets my phone number and gives me a call, shooting in the dark that I could connect the dots for him. Wow – just wow. Apparently there is $100,000 on the table for an exclusive interview with The Random Blonde – but here’s the kicker, she isn’t a random blonde. Tindell knew her and so does his wife – she’s an old family friend – it truly is a storm in a teacup.

So how stupid is Jonathan Dixon – well he screwed himself out of ever working in Queenstown again and has done nothing but add fuel to a stupid fire that is making Queenstown look like the world capital of debauchery and infidelity. What’s more though is he put the video on YouTube – he could have sold it to The Sun for half a million bucks and at least been a rich idiot – but no, he gave it away. For what? For fame….

2) Ben Boyce. A couple of days ago there was this big scare that some terrorist had tried to infiltrate the Auckland Airport dressed as a pilot and tried to enter a secure area. People got a bit freaked out and on edge – the World Cup is on after all, this is about the only time that lots of important people are here. Just when the country was about to go to Def-Con-4 it’s revealed that it wasn’t a terrorist just a couple of guys from a prank TV show filming a skit. Ben Boyce came to fame in a show called Pulp Sport where along with his co host (hmmmm, I wonder what happened to that guy…) did all sorts of silly stunts and sketches. Usually it was just sneaking beer into rugby games and stuff – not this time though. Even the most fun at heart would have to agree that this was way over the line. Here in NZ we are pretty lucky our airport security isn’t all that intrusive, hell domestically we don’t even go though a metal detector for some flights. So thanks Ben, the next time I have to take my shoes off I’ll be thinking of you. Idiot. The worst part – when asked about it the little shit had the nerve to be smug, asking if somebody could pick up him mum from the airport as he’s been banned from it. He could get a year in jail and based on how pissed people are, I think he might get at least some of it.

3) Cameron Leslie – in the hours following the bombing and shooting in Norway news agencies around the world were looking for a local angle. NZ news got word that a kiwi was caught up in it and hustled him on air. The guy they picked up was a complete moron. While describing what it was like to be in the building next-door to the one that exploded he slotted in perhaps the most bizarre in-joke ever. While describing what happened at the moment of the explosion he said he was bench pressing 165kg (360lbs) and, “naturally I finished my set” before exiting the building. He said this as he was standing in front of a smouldering pile of rubble filled with dead people. Classy.

What a month it’s been – lets hope that October ups the collective IQ a bit…

My Good friend Gordon Laing from right here in Queenstown, runs a very cool camera testing website called Cameralabs.com. This fantastic site is home to some of the most comprehensive camera testing anywhere on the web. Gordon gets stuck into fresh cameras, lenses and other photography gear like nobody else out there – his reviews are in depth, detailed and spot on. Recently I was fortunate to be able to give Gordon a hand in reviewing a brand new lens from Canon – the Canon 8-15mm f4 Fisheye Zoom.

You may have seen some of the fisheye photos I posted recently on this blog – they were part of that test. If you’re a photographer looking into a wide lens I encourage you to have a read of the review – it makes for some interesting reading. Along with my input there is also Gordon’s fantastic technical testing and follow QT shooter Stefan Haworth who gave the lens a spin too. If you’re not looking for a super-wide lens or interested in hearing me chat about how I shot some of the images you’ve seen here go have a mosey around Camera Labs anyway. There’s stacks of reviews and tests of the latest gear and it’s a great one-stop-shop for figuring out what your next camera should be. And while you’re there shout Gordon a coffee –  he’s a nice guy and he likes coffee.

Click HERE for my portion of the review.

Click HERE to visit Camera Labs.